In many conventional cellular wireless communications networks, transmission power over a plurality of wireless links is controlled in a centralized manner. For example, a base station or central controller device may coordinate communications corresponding to a plurality of mobiles which are using the base station as a point of network attachment in the communications system. The base station and/or central controller manages resource allocation and communications corresponding to a plurality of mobiles competing for the limited air link resources, e.g., granting or denying access, assigning air link resources to mobiles, tracking mobile position, measuring communications channels, controlling transmission power levels, controlling data rates, and/or managing interference. The base station and/or centralized control device can, and generally does, perform closed loop power and timing control operations as part of the management and control of mobile transmissions. Since the base station and/or centralized controller has a good overall view of the situation in a cell, it can effectively manage communications corresponding to a plurality of different links between mobiles and the base station. For example, the base station can power control uplink transmissions from mobiles located different distances away from the base station such that the received power at the base station will be within an acceptable range for signal recovery of both long range and short range signals.
In the field of wireless communications there has been a trend to make spectrum available for use by various types of networks in addition to conventional cellular networks. One such network type which has been gaining in popularity and utilization is a peer to peer network, e.g., peer to peer networks lacking centralized control. It is desirable that a peer to peer network be able to support reliable communications over a wide range of distances. In a peer to peer network, lacking centralized control and/or management, transmitted signals from one device may cause problems to other devices. In particular a receiver corresponding to a short range link, situated very close to a transmitter for a long range link, can be saturated and/or de-sensed, e.g., suffer from a lower ability to detect a signal of interest, because of the signal of a long range link which may be occurring concurrently. A resulting unacceptable level of interference may prevent recovery of the information of interest being communicated on the short range link.
Based on the above discussion there is a need for new methods and apparatus that can support communications over different ranges in a peer to peer wireless network.